The Hollow World Enigma: Shimaku

Name: Shimaku (AKA ‘Death Coil’)
Faction: Rogue
Alignment: Neutral-Hostile
Kaiju Rank: 3
Stats:
Height- 5 meters from ground level, feasibly 20 when rearing.
Length- 40 meters
Weight- 16,000 tons
Land Speed- 70 MPH (50 while burrowing)
Water Speed- 50 Knots

Powers:

Necrotic Aura-
Due to Shimaku’s peculiar nature, she casually leeches the vitality from her surroundings just by touching it. The range of this aura is gauged by the ghastly chill in the air that always announces her presence. Plants wither and die, animals become ill and catatonic and birds will spontaneously drop from the sky. People will likewise suffer upon entering the aura. Its strength is determined by how close the victim is to the kaiju. Physical contact will likely kill a human being instantly or send them into a temporary coma. Beings with Enigma inside of them such as kaiju and kaijin are resistant to the aura to an extent. Prolonged contact (over an hour or so) can greatly weaken even kaiju a rank above Shimaku should they continue hostilities. A rule of thumb would be the more Enigma a kaiju has, the more they can tolerate this ability and stave off its effects.

Projectile Venom-
Shimaku has some traits that carry over from her mortal forefathers. One of these is the ability to fire concentrated streams of her extremely potent venom from her fangs; usually into the eyes of the opponent. The venom itself defies typical classification, acting more like a flesh rotting acid than a true poison. It can erode flesh, destroy delicate organs and stunt regeneration for a time. The range of this attack is about as three times as long as she is, ranging from 30-120 meters. This often catches her opponents by surprise when they try to keep their distance. Armored targets have a great deal of protection from this attack providing it doesn’t hit joints, soft spots, or their face. It is an ink like liquid that can be washed off providing there is a body of water nearby. Water contact dilutes its effects but it is very unwise for kaiju to attempt to swim through or breathe such contaminated water as it may enter gills/lungs/pores/eyes etc. and cause extreme pain. The reload time for this attack is roughly 3 minutes.

Undead-
Shimaku slithers on the edge between the living and the dead, having no concept of the usual issues of being alive. She does not breathe, or eat in a typical sense. Psychic contact is hazardous and ineffectual and attempts to siphon her own energy leave the instigator wracked with extreme agony as ‘negative Enigma’ winds its way through their bodies. Specific strikes to parts of her anatomy are useless as the organs and nerves are superficial compared to the whole. Shimaku doesn’t regenerate as much as ‘reform’. While this is much slower, it means that Shimaku is never out of a fight for very long. Simply reconstituting herself when broken sliced, torn in half, etc. Upon devouring the essence of another kaiju or draining an area rich with life, Shimaku can reform herself even faster than most kaiju can regenerate themselves. This makes leaving any wounded enemies or comrades nearby a very bad idea with facing the death coil.

Scythe Rattle-
Shimaku has an extremely sharp and very hard rattle like blade on the end of her tail. It’s curved very much like a farming scythe and it grows larger for every kaiju Shimaku slays and devours to keep up with her own growth. Shimaku uses this rattle much like her other forefather, a rattle snake, would; using it as a warning and tool of intimidation. Failing that it becomes a deadly and lethal weapon. Necrotic energy gathers in a concentrated edge on the underside of the rattle which gives it something of a vorpal quality. It’s extremely capable of dissecting, dismembering, and beheading just about any moderately armored target with sickening ease. Aside from her fangs and whip like coils it is her primary melee weapon and tool of execution; if severed it can reform in a matter of days.

The Cowl-
Shimaku’s unusual mutation forced the usual extendable ribs of her cobra ancestor into an extra set outside the body; mutating into something of a bony frill. Normally it folds flat against her sides but when angered she will unfold it to its full length. It’s more durable than it looks but its main purpose doesn’t come in the face of physical attacks. When the Cowl is open, it can siphon energy attacks right out of the air and into Shimaku for her own personal use. This allows her to ‘catch’ energy attacks and shoot them back from her jaws. Gas and physical projectiles cannot be caught in this manner and effect Shimaku normally. All attacks affect her normally when the Cowl is closed.

Bone Carapace-
The skeletal looking plates that run down her back are very dense, making effective armor. Her belly is not as resistant but quite tough as well and flexible.

Serpent Tactics-
Not exactly a tactician but quite cunning, Shimaku is capable of using her serpentine form in ways her opponents generally don’t expect. Looping around their feet to trip them, whipping them with a lash of the tail, undulating her sides into a body slam, and simply head butting them in the face are among her usual attacks. Shimaku prefers to strike rather than coil around her foes as this is both instinct and keeps her out of harms reach; when she does coil, its generally last resort or as a grapple to better bite them where it hurts. If pressed she may stoop to using the environment as a weapon, usually a pit trap is the result of this.

Weaknesses:

Ground Bound-
Shimaku’s greatest adversaries are usually of the winged variety and due to one of her other weaknesses she has a hard time countering them unless they come within melee range.

Deaf and near Blind-
Shimaku has snake senses, thus her sense of smell and touch are much stronger than her sight. She does not hear at all. While this makes her immune to most sonic based weaponry, it also means she can’t hear roars or other such warnings for good or ill. She can ‘see’ fluctuations in an creature’s life force which indicate mood and intent but specifics of vocal language are lost on the serpent. She relies on vibrations in the ground in the way of ‘tremor sense’, a ground based form of echolocation. If she strikes the ground with her chin, it’s usually an attempt to get a better sense of her surroundings. Her poor vision makes her depend on her ability to see Enigma/life force rather than depend on her normal vision which is motion based. This is another reason why flying foes are her most troublesome opponents.

A Ribbing-
While her belly and back are well protected, her sides are fair game to conventional weaponry.

Healing Hurts-
Being undead has one major drawback. Any kaiju with a healing or positive energy type ability can cause Shimaku a lot of pain and even render her comatose with enough applications. Generally if Shimaku where ever completely and totally enveloped in pure, positive, Enigma, she would cease to exist. In general, she would rather retreat from such a foe than continue to fight them. This basically means that Shimaku only feeds off of ‘filtered Enigma’ or Enigma that has already been used to mutate another life form rather than the raw element itself.

Personality:
Shimaku is even by kaiju standards, an anomaly. This puts her at odds with a lot of kaiju right off the bat and her penchant for slaying and devouring the dying and deceased does not build up a very good type of PR. Thus, she is a solitary creature both by choice and by need; few kaiju wish to associate with death incarnate. She is resolute in her existence and sense of purpose however, giving an air of indifference and apathy as she goes about her business. She is extremely tenacious and stubborn when it comes to chasing her chosen quarry, even it means waiting days at a time, fighting a gauntlet of enemies, smashing through a military barricade or even braving her own destruction if she develops a vendetta. In general, she is cold but oddly curious and if in the company of something that doesn’t want her destroyed or is utterly terrified of her, she can be a bit ‘quirky’. In battle she can insinuate being sarcastic, snide or outright nightmare fuel depending on what she’s dealing with. Most of this is displayed via body language as verbal communication is not something she’s well versed in at all. Shimaku has very little patience for humanity and if attacked with so much as a single tank round she will rampage and leave a hideous death toll in the aftermath. She is not one to hold grudges for something so small however and usually after an attack she will slither off like nothing ever happened. This makes Shimaku a kaiju of mystery and one that is severely misunderstood but at the same time rightly feared.

History:
As the world had to gradually grow accustomed to the emergence of Kaiju and the force known simply as ‘Enigma’ it was somewhat ironic that not a lot of attention had been called to Japan; the cultural homeland for giant monsters. Japan itself was actually relieved that only a few kaiju had emerged from their region and that at least two of them were not intent on obliterating Tokyo. Japan of course, realized due to an intense feeling of cultural paranoia that had been building back up again over the last century, they felt they needed to find a way to protect themselves personally. As luck would have it, they managed to procure a massive amount of pure Enigma from an undersea trench off the eastern coast of Hokkaido. Their top minds were quickly bent to the task of somehow weaponizing the element for use against kaiju or somehow finding a way to neutralize its mutating effects. Various projects involving the material where created, such as powering robotics, genetic engineering and of course, making things explode spectacularly. The head of the overall operation, Professor Keiji Yoma and his daughter Shinko Yoma could often be seen visiting the various labs for reports and findings. Familiar with the nature of this kind of thing, Keiji Yoma insisted on as much protocol and procedure as possible to minimize the threat of a accident which as any scifi buff could tell you, leads to monster creation of the unwanted variety. Shinko herself was noted to spent an lot of her time inspecting the genetics department where they were testing the Enigma’s effects on gene splicing with a variety of snakes. Venom had always been a major issue by creating hybrid snakes, multitasking antivenom could feasibly be created. Shinko often visited specimen No. 12 which was a combination between a sea snake, a diamond back rattler snake, and an spitting cobra. It would spit at her at first but as it got accustomed to her presence, it seemed to exhibit some signs of intelligence…as if speaking and mimicking Shinko’s hand movements…

The projects were all developing phenomenal results but nothing along the lines of negating Enigma’s powerful effects. That was until a mysterious benefactor from Rome stated to Prof. Yoma during a meeting for more funding that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. The question was finding out what Enigma’s opposite was. Enigma seemed to work via an overwhelmingly positive charge…converting it to a negative charge may just be the key to weaponizing it! Or…that’s what Prof. Yoma speculated as they prepared a new lab. At first, the trail seemed to be going smoothly; the brilliant yellow energy was gradually being converted into a pale blue energy that was giving the young scientists in the room chills. But something went horribly wrong. The positive Enigma began to buckle and wrestle with the negative Enigma as the energy for both was pulled in opposite directions. The generators overloaded from the pressure and the two energies suddenly collided and created a catatonic explosion that rocked half of Tokushima where the facility was held. Over 60 percent of the staff died and hundreds were injured. Prof. Keiji was lucky to have been in a monitoring bunker surveying the lab, the genetics department however was right next door…and his daughter to this day has not been found and presumed dead. Most of the test subjects were destroyed in the blast but one for some reason managed to survive…and in the charred rubble something stirred and burrowed beneath the earth…

A week later reports began to appear of people suddenly disappearing. Random people but all of them elderly or ill, occasionally a young victim would be found; their entire body withered to the point they looked months dead rather than days. The attacks increased in number as days passed and rumors of some kind of killer snake began to filter down. As details began to gradually emerge, Keiji began to understand what and who the creature was. It was No. 12 but much more mutated and increasing in size by the day. A pattern began to develop in the victims; all of them had been within a mile radius of the explosion and had some minor traces of Enigma in them. Japan attempted to keep everything quiet for as long as possible but soon internet leaks of missing people and the bizarre cryptic stories of the killer snake-which people were taking seriously these days-soon exposed Japan’s well intentioned but disastrous attempts to experiment on Enigma, causing a massive political uproar. The ultimate fruit of their fears however soon rose menacingly over Osaka and proceeded to turn a good fourth of the city into a mass grave with people literally dropping dead in the streets as they encountered the now 40 meter No. 12. Before an adequate response could be mounted, it was gone. Burrowed into the earth and heading east…toward Nagoya. The world was used to fighting kaiju that stayed out in the open and stuck around to get pelted with missiles, No. 12 defied that expectation and continued to humiliate and frustrate the Japanese self defense force at every turn. The media had a heyday with the explosion of news worthy events and eventually settled on naming the kaiju ‘Shimaku’ as it came from Shikoku, had coils, and brought death to everything it encountered. The UN declared the creature a class 3 and with some convincing from Japan allowed them to try and take care of it themselves. After all…how much harm could a class 3 do compared to the rampant class 4’s? Apparently what Shimaku lacked in property damage she made up for in sheer body count. Growing desperate, Japan looked to ALL possible solutions. Japan was utterly LOATH to ask aid from China who while interested in the anomaly that was Shimaku, was not interested in engaging her directly anyway. This left Japan with two options: go crawling back to the UN for aid or try and deal with the enraged serpent themselves. National pride won that argument and the Japanese Self Defense Force went at her again. This time however Prof. Keiji was along for the ride with an experimental new weapon. He was EXTREMELY upset over the loss of his daughter and felt he had to regain his honor and humanity by destroying the monster he had inadvertently created. He had taken the ‘Enigma Polarity’ experiment and turned it in the opposite direction, making a type of bomb that would convert a negative charge into Enigma and vice-versa at the same time; recreating the explosion in a more controlled manner. The possibilities for such technology…for both good and ill…were immense but Prof. Keiji wasn’t willing to live long enough to see either. He made this mistake, he would die with it. The serpent and the defense force rocked Tokyo for what must have been hours. The city was in shambles, bodies were everywhere and through sheer determination they actually made her bleed; the dark ichor splattering the streets and killing even more people through contact. Regardless of their efforts, she was slowly but surely winning; crushing their offensive lines and sending their tanks flying haphazardly into the path of American F-15’s. Any damage they did seemed to seal back up in a matter of minutes as she pin pointed another pocket of civilians and swatted them with an offhanded sort of disdain. After engaging in some extreme population control, Shimaku hissed in contentment before slithering into Tokyo Bay…with a single power boat carrying Prof. Keiji sailing after her. She stopped for a moment and inspected the single man on the boat…she recognized that form…that scent. He ranted at her, his speck of a life force flaring and lashing like a flame within his tiny body. He was angry…more than those terrified soldiers had been. She was thinking about eating him when he brought forth the Enigma Polarity Bomb or E.P.B. as it would be known as military intelligence circles in the same manner as the holy grail. The energies in the bomb both drew her to it and repulsed her immediately, confusing the serpent long enough for Keiji to activate the bomb…A massive burst of yellow and blue swirled together and for a whole 30 seconds…the entirety of Tokyo Bay was neon green as a ear splitting shriek shattered the night. The plans for the EPB were gone and with it the great yet tortured man who created it.

Japan celebrated the sacrifice of Prof. Keiji, and where satisfied that they had slain a kaiju with their own ingenuity over using the deadly beasts against each other. Most of the world either sighed with relief or lamented the disaster for various reasons. The Yoma family was heartbroken that something so tragic happened to both their family, their country and the maligned creature that had been created because it. Though more professional in her statement, Dr. Lerna was no less adamant in her disapproval of Japan’s ‘kill it with extreme prejudice’ new style of kaiju management; stating that it will likely just cause more violent kaiju conflicts in the future. The UN was divided…they were safe from a slithering death machine but at the same time Japan had unleashed a power on the scale of the atom bomb for its time…yet had nothing to show for it which was both frustrating and a relief at the same time. The US considered it a job well done and went back to other concerns, mainly the emergence of even more earth hollows. But all was not as well as they thought, for along the coast of Australia a black form washed up on its shores, two fishing vessels burning over the horizon. The black form caused the reeds growing on the dunes to brown and die as the massive tears and holes in the form gradually closed as it made its way south….

Days later Japan was forced to issue a live GLOBAL apology for failing to eliminate Shimaku and vowed they would dedicate their resources toward destroying the creature through whatever means necessary…taking full responsibility of course. In the mean time, Australia was missing several million dollars worth of sheep, The Middle East had suddenly spiraled into a blood bath of epic proportions, Russia had an unusual storm front moving over the area and drying it out, America was having the biggest fly infestation in recorded history, South America was finding its water routes to become even more dangerous than usual, unusual tremors were being reported from underneath Rome than quickly dismissed, Africa was seeing Enigma mutation never seen since the late Cretaceous and somewhere in the depths of the Puget Sound, a pair of blue luminescent eyes stared balefully out of the depths…and began to rise. For all intents and purposes Shimaku wasn’t the end; she was the beginning of a new tide of kaiju that was about the shake the world as man knew it to the core.

Important Dates:

- August 25, 2030: Japan discovers a billowing plume or raw Enigma, several miles south east of Hokkaido within an ocean trench. They quickly seize the resource for themselves and begin gathering it for research purposes.

- September 6, 2030: Japan and Peru begin experiments with raw and solid Enigma respectively. Keiji Yoma is appointed head of research and development for the facility in Tokushima.

- September 7 - 17, 2031: The Tokushima facility has had phenomenal success in genetic and robotic research, creating a series of test subjects 00-20. All of them hybrid snakes. The Prof.'s daughter Shinko establishes a bond with No.12.

- September 29, 2032: Hitting a road block when it comes to weaponizing the Enigma, a meeting is called for more funding and demonstration. The Roman sponsor suggests converting the Enigma to a negative charge in order to make it lethal to kaiju. Prof. Yoma draws inspiration from the idea and begins the facilities latest gamble.

- October 27, 2033: First full test of the Enigma Polarity Effect is initiated. The Prof. monitors from a video bunker as to keep an eye on other projects. The Engima is split successfully into two polar opposite energies but the experiment goes critical and the Tokushima facility is blown off the map. 60 percent of the staff are killed, Shinko is declared dead though no body is found. Subject No.12 miraclously survives the blast and escapes the immediate area.

- April 10 - 29 2033: Reports of a 'killer snake' begin raising in areas in and surrounding Tokushima. Prof. Yoma begins piecing it together, settling on the monster being none other than No.12 mutated by the EPF and feeding on Enigma laden people caught in the aftermath. No.12 reaches rank 3 kaiju status and creates untold carnage in Osaka before swiftly burrowing and heading toward Nagoya.


- April 30 - May 10, 2033: Despite the SDF's best efforts, the kaiju dubbed 'Shimaku' by the media continues to humiliate and elude all efforts to contain and destroy. Other options from outside Japan are unavailable and thus due to national pride, Japan must find a solution on its own. Pro. Yoma recreates a portable, stable version of the EPF, now called the Enigma Polarity Bomb. Yoma intends to use it against Shimaku and avenge his daughter as well as himself at the cost of his life.

- May 12, 2033: Shimaku attacks Tokyo and a full out war is waged. The death toll is massive and despite being effectively injured by conventional weaponry along her sides, the serpent recovers and decimates what is left in her path. Prof. Yoma chases Shimaku into the bay via power boat and after a brief face off, activates the EPB. The EPB succeeds in horribly injuring Shimaku who is believed to have been slain, Prof. Yoma is declared a hero while the rest of the world exchanges various opinions on the situation. All plans for the EPB and all traces of it aside from the radiation were found destroyed along with the man who created them.

- May 25, 2033 – January 16, 2034: Shimaku is discovered to be alive and wandering the world after draining the life force from millions of dollars worth of sheep in Australia. Japan is forced to issue a global apology and declares that it is their personal duty to destroy the death coil. Incidents from around the world begin to erupt as Shimaku continues her now nomadic path in search of 'filtered enigma'.

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This is my KAS HWE version of Shimaku. Surprised? Yeah, I decided to do a radical take on my character. Just one of those things being the change the gender entirely. I like my diversity thank you much. This is pretty much a man made Shimaku without the experience and without the guidance of good ole Gaia. She still fufills her KCELL counterparts job of taking out the old, the infirm, and the retarded but does so more out of instinct and self preservation more than duty. She lives strictly but by her own set of rules. Since the KCELL version of this kaiju is something of a viper/python mix, I decided to go Cobra/rattler largely with this one. I tried to incorporate her into HWE via reference but not outright participation of the other HWE kaiju, allowing her to stand on her own yet also giving some hints as to where she might fit into things.

Also gave a bit of hint for other stuff that might come of her being in HWE with ambiguous homages and stuff all around.

Oh, and here is her theme song. Second I heard this I just KNEW this one was hers since its also in theme with the high paced and rather edgy theme of HWE.

'Another Way to Die' by Disturbed
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHx40M…

-RenDragonClaw